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Gelation performance of PAM/PEI polymer gel with addition of retarder in high-salinity conditions

  • Original Paper: Sol-gel and hybrid materials for energy, environment and building applications
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Abstract

The complex nature of heterogeneous reservoirs requires the development of effective and stable polymer gel to reduce excessive water production. Organically cross-linked polymer gel is becoming popular and an effective means of conformance control. The key objective of gel treatment is to reduce the flow of water through high-permeability channels and divert the subsequent injection water to the productive zones of the reservoir. This article briefly studied the effects of salinity and NH4Cl as retarders on the performance of the PAM/PEI polymer gel, especially the effects on viscosity, gelation time, gel strength, and gel morphology. The experimental results show that the effectiveness of NH4Cl to extend the gelation time of polymer gel is significantly reduced in high salinity. With the increase of salinity, the gel network greatly loses its gel strength as well. This indicates that a weak gel structure is formed and becomes vulnerable as observed from the surface morphology. It can be observed that PAM/PEI gel with NH4Cl in high salinity has a certain granular structure in some regions. These findings provide a better understanding and give additional insight as current studies have not significantly described the performance of PAM/PEI polymer gel with NH4Cl as a retarder that was prepared in high salinity for high-temperature water control application.

Highlights

  • Investigation on performance of PAM/PEI polymer gel with the effects of salinity and NH4Cl as retarder.

  • Results showed that the effectiveness of NH4Cl as retarder of polymer gel is significantly reduced in high salinity.

  • Gel network greatly loses its gel strength as weak granular structure is formed and becomes vulnerable.

  • Fine-tuning of the weakened PAM/PEI polymer gel is necessary to retrieve the deficiency caused by the influence of salinity and retarder factors.

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Funding

The authors appreciate the contributions and financial supports from the University of Malaya (IF062-2019), University of Malaya (FP050-2019A), Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (GR&T-UTP RG2020-0483), and SLAI Fellowship Scheme from the Ministry of Education Malaysia and University of Malaya.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Zulhelmi Amir, Badrul Mohamed Jan, Muhamad Fazly Abdul Patah & Mohd Usman Mohd Junaidi

  2. Center for Energy Science, Universiti Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Zulhelmi Amir, Badrul Mohamed Jan & Muhamad Fazly Abdul Patah

  3. Petroleum Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610, Bandar Seri Iskandar, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia

    Ismail Mohd Saaid

  4. Oil & Gas Department, School of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450, Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

    Wan Zairani Wan Bakar

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  1. Zulhelmi Amir
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Correspondence to Zulhelmi Amir.

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Amir, Z., Mohd Saaid, I., Mohamed Jan, B. et al. Gelation performance of PAM/PEI polymer gel with addition of retarder in high-salinity conditions. J Sol-Gel Sci Technol 101, 299–313 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-021-05688-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-021-05688-7

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